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Welcome to Glenorchy Air

Glenorchy Air is a New Zealand scenic flight airline based in Queenstown.

You are guaranteed a window seat.

We provide scenic flights from Queenstown and Glenorchy to many destinations around the South Island including Milford Sound, where you can also take the cruise. We also fly to Fiordland, Mt Cook, the Glaciers, the penguin and albatross colonies of Otago's east coast and to New Line Cinemas, Lord of the Rings movies location sites in the southern part of the South Island of New Zealand.

Latest News

Resumed Operations

Following the tragic and unexpected death of our Chief Pilot, Robert Rutherford, we have fully resumed operations. We have been able to delegate all duties and responsibilities to the appropriate staff. While we have been operational since Friday, the weather has prevented us from flying yet, we are hoping to be airboure again this afternoon or tomorrow.

We have been overwhelmed at the support that we have recieved during this difficut time and would like to extend our sincere gratitude to anyone who has helped or sent us a kind message.

In memory of Robert Rutherford

Glenorchy Air is sad to advise of the unexpected death of our Chief Pilot Robert Rutherford. He was undertaking property maintenance at his Queenstown home when he fell and passed away the evening of Monday October 22.

Glenorchy Air has temporarily suspended its commercial flight operations while we focus on providing support to family and staff. We are still coming to terms with the sudden loss of our dear friend and colleague.

The weather in the Queenstown region is looking very changeable over the next few days, however on days that we can fly, we have made alternative arrangements with local flight operators to honour bookings made and to ensure minimum disruption to you and your customers. We will continue to monitor bookings and emails and will respond to these as promptly as we can.

We will continue to utilise the services of local flight operators until such time as we are ready to resume flying. We will keep you informed as to when we will resume our commercial flight operations.

Thank you for your messages of support and condolences, we will pass these onto the family.

We thank you for your patience and understanding at this time, from all of us at Glenorchy Air.

Mission Impossible Fallout: Sharing the sky with Tom Cruise

Lake Quill: The location of the Helicopter gun fight in Fallout, and one of the captive lakes seen on our return journey from Milford Sound.

The newly released blockbuster boasts a star studded cast, including household names such as Tom Cruise, Henry Cavil, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson. As impressive as the cast is we feel that it played second fiddle to some of the breath taking filming locations. Milford Sound, Glenorchy and Queenstown, were all used in the exhilarating helicopter scenes that Cruise spent two years getting his licence to create. These filming locations just so happen to be exactly where we fly over on our way to Milford Sound.

With stunning scenery in every direction, it’s no surprise that this part of the world has become popular with film makers. Most notably the home of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies, Central Otago and Fjordland has since played host to The Water Horse (2007), Wolverine (2009), Top Of The Lake (2013) and Alien Covenant (2017).

Having an sterling track record in the film industry, some of the most impressive scenery in the world, and special aviation laws that accommodate “stunt flying”, it was a no brainer to record the helicopter scenes for the latest instalment of the Mission Impossible franchise here. Watching the movie gave us an exhilarating, and terrifying, perspective on a flight that we’re so familiar with. While we won’t be trying to recreate any of Cruise’s stunts in out fixed wing planes it was definitely fun to watch.

If you would like to get an aerial view of all the incredible places mentioned above, without having to dangle from a rope a few thousand feet above the ground, then get in touch, we’d love to have you!